GOHAN'S TEARS: THE DEATH OF CHI-CHI
by animegrrrl
Summary: More than your typical touchy feely drivel.


Summ: More than your typical touchy-feely drivel.  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sigh. The title says it all. Happens after "Piccolo's Question", before "Gohan's Loneliness: The Death of Videl", and "Piccolo's First Kiss". Okaasan and otousan means mother and father in Japanese. Said without the 'o' in front, it has the equivalent meaning of mom and dad. Oh, and Mr. Satan's died of old age by now so that's why he's not in this.  
  
GOHAN'S TEARS: THE DEATH OF CHI-CHI  
by animegrrrl  
  
  
At the Son household, a very sick and old Chi-Chi lay in bed. "Please, one more?" pleaded Chi-Chi's daughter-in-law, Videl. Chi-Chi had refused food by simply closing her mouth. Even at this age, she was still so stubborn. However, Videl did manage to coax her into drinking a few sips of water. A little dribbled out of her mouth. Videl wiped it off Chi-Chi's chin with the bib that Videl herself had tied earlier that morning.   
  
Gohan looked away from the sight. Seeing his mother in such a helpless state deeply disturbed him. Gohan's mind went back a few weeks, to the unfortunate events that had led the family to this. While Goten was out visiting his girlfriend, Chi-Chi decided to relax for once by taking a nice, hot shower. She lost her footing on the soapy floor. Her frail bones couldn't take the impact and with a sickening snap her hip broke. She laid there crying on the damp floor until Goten came home later that night.   
  
She was immediately hospitalized. While recuperating from hip surgery Chi-Chi developed a case of pneumonia. The Son family kept her in for a few more weeks, then a few more, but she was not getting any better. The bills were running up, the insurance ran out, and the doctor pronounced that it was hopeless. Videl made the decision to pull Chi-Chi out so that she could rest the last few days at home.   
  
And so this is how bitter circumstance left her: bedridden, unable to walk, and barely able to breathe.   
  
Goten, Pan, Videl, and Gohan, all of the Son family was there. Chi-Chi was never left alone; there was always someone on shift to care for her needs, or to just to keep her company. This time it was Videl's turn, though Gohan hovered uselessly in the background. Videl had to watch Gohan wince everytime he heard a harsh cough. She saw how much he was hurting, but what could she do except see it through to the end? Eventually night time came and everyone prepared to go to sleep. Videl had long since tired of Gohan's pacing and sat him down in a chair. Now she put her hand on his shoulder and gently urged Gohan to come to bed.   
  
Gohan frowned. "No. I want to be there when okaasan gets better." Videl's heart broke.   
  
"Oh, Gohan!" Videl wrapped her arms around her husband compassionately. She talked softly into his hair, almost pleadingly, and tried to explain reality to him like a child. "Gohan, don't you understand? It isn't just the pneumonia. She's old and the combination of hip surgery and sickness was just too much for her. It's alright Gohan, people die all the time. People die of old age, and your mother is very old." Gohan slowly shook his no. "Gohan, it's alright to let her go."   
  
"It's not alright. I don't want to lose my mother." Gohan's voice lowered ominously. "I don't want to lose you." He grabbed her hands. "Videl, promise me that we'll die together."  
  
"Gohan, I-"  
  
His grip tightened. "Promise me!"   
  
Videl was shocked and surprised. How could she keep such a promise? But she saw the desperation in his eyes and could not say no. Videl kissed her husband passionately. "Gohan, you'll never lose me."   
  
Together they watched Chi-Chi sleep.  
  
"COUGH! COUGH!" Gohan and Videl jerked awake, startled by the terrible coughing and retching sounds coming from Chi-Chi. Videl took her head off Gohan's lap and hurried to Chi-Chi's side. He rose a bit slower, stiff and sore from sleeping in a chair all night. Goten and Pan came running in from the kitchen, where they had been eating breakfast. Videl held Chi-Chi while she hacked up phlegm and saliva. Videl removed the napkin she had used to cover Chi-Chi's mouth. She could not conceal the flecks of blood on it. Everyone stared worriedly. Gohan moistened a cloth and wiped it across Chi-Chi's forehead, saying "Shh." Videl gave her a bit of water to drink and the wheezing began to subside. Pan, Goten, Videl, and Gohan breathed a sigh of relief.   
  
"Goku!" Everyone jumped from the sudden sound. It was Chi-Chi. Her eyes were open and she was looking mighty mad. Everyone turned and followed the direction of her gaze.  
  
"Me?" pointed a surprised Goten.   
  
"Goku! Look at you! You should be ashamed." scolded an animated Chi-Chi.  
  
"But I'm not-"  
  
"No excuses! Now go into the kitchen and go wash those crumbs off your face!"  
  
"Hai." Confused, but subdued, Goten went to do as commanded. Pan, Videl, and Gohan busted out laughing. It was good to see their Chi-Chi being her old self again. Videl went over to check on her. Chi-Chi had fallen back asleep and looked quite content.  
  
The day passed wretchedly with three more coughing attacks. Everyone's nerves were frayed. The Son family was on edge, and exhausted, because every time a coughing attack came, they wondered if each breath Chi-Chi took might be her last. Now night was coming and everyone except Gohan retired to bed. Again he was sitting on the wooden chair beside a sleeping Chi-Chi. Hours went by uneventfully and Gohan started to doze off himself, but became alert at the sound of Chi-Chi's breath catching in her throat. Gohan shook off his drowsiness and peered intently at the sleeping form before him. Chi-Chi's breathing was already slow and feeble, but now it was even worse. Her chest rose irregularly and her breaths now came once in a while. The pauses between each breath became longer and longer, slower and slower.  
  
Gohan rose and padded into the room where Videl was sleeping. He touched her shoulder and she opened her eyes. One look into her husband's was enough to silently understand. Hand in hand they walked down the hall, pausing only to have Videl wake everyone else. They followed into the room. Pan and Goten situated themselves on opposite sides of the bed. Videl and Gohan stood and tightly gripped each other's hand. All eyes were glued to the lined and ashen face of Chi-Chi. It was a while before they realized that her breathing had stopped. Videl counted to herself for a minute to see if her breathing would start again. Two minutes went by, then a third... Videl touched Chi-Chi. "She's dead."   
  
Everyone stood still in wooden numbness- until the silence was shattered by Goten's wail. "Kaasan!" Griefstricken, Goten draped himself over his mother's body.   
  
Pan whimpered "grandma, grandma" over and over and tears started to come out of her eyes.   
  
Eventually the two hugged and cried together, curling up on the floor next to the bed. Weeping, Videl went over to them and rocked Pan and Goten in her arms. "She was my mother too." Videl murmured hoarsely into Goten's ear. After a while Videl got up and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Goodbye Chi-Chi. Thankyou for being the mother I never had."  
  
Videl looked over her shoulder at her daughter. Pan came forward and kissed Chi-Chi on the cheek. "Goodbye, grandma."   
  
Goten looked at Chi-Chi and started sobbing again. "Mamaaaa."   
  
Videl took Goten and Pan into the kitchen to clean up. She came back out to see Gohan still sitting on the chair, staring at Chi-Chi. His face was tearless and unnaturally calm. "Gohan?" Videl questioned softy. "Why aren't you crying?"   
  
Gohan took a moment to answer. He looked dazedly down at his wife, who was kneeling beside the chair with a worried look on her face. "She looks so peaceful sleeping, doesn't she?" Videl's eyes widened. She tried to reason with him, tried to get him to accept Chi-Chi's death. "No," Gohan denied, getting a little angry, "she's sleeping."   
  
Videl shouted in frustration. "Gohan, she's dead!"   
  
"NO!"   
  
Gohan threw off the arm that Videl had put around him for comfort with a surprising amount of force. He got up and ran out the front door. Videl called after him. "Gohan!" The only answer was the slamming of the door.  
  
"Why." Gohan ran out fullspeed and slipped on a wet patch of grass. The impact threw him against the brick wall house which made him see a burst of stars. He ignored the pain and cursed the universe. "Why? First tousan is taken away from me, and now okaasan! Why?! Death. How could such a cruel thing exist?! It's not fair! It's not FAIR!" Gohan went to strike the house but stopped when he realized he almost punched a hole in the wall. He grimaced. "Oh man, mom would kill me for that." Then he remembered that Chi-Chi was dead and couldn't do much about anything. Gohan let out a sad, bitter laugh that sounded more like a sob. He didn't find it funny.   
  
Gohan sadly slid down against the wall and sat with his arm around his knees, looking at the stars in the clear night sky. How he missed her. Gohan let the memories wash through him, good and bad. He remembered how overbearing and overprotective she was: the way she would scold him when he daydreamed instead of studying, that little irritated frown whenever Piccolo came around, Chi-Chi screaming at Goku as he went off to save the world yet again, his mother sobbing with his father dead, again and again and again.   
  
Gohan moaned and pressed his face into his hands. The memories rolled through him, crashed into him, as they took their toll. Gohan ground his teeth and pulled at the roots of his hair as his body contorted into taut lines of flesh. Gohan looked up. Something had made him pause. It was a memory, a precious and cherished one. Gohan had been immediately sent to bed after coming home late from sparring. An injured Icarus came limping up to the front door. Chi-Chi allowed Gohan to take care of Icarus' wound but wouldn't allow him to stay in his room. Later in the the night Gohan awoke to the sound of Icarus whimpering in pain. Commanded to sleep or no, he had to check on Icarus. Gohan was about to slip out the window when he heard a door open. It was his mother. Gohan watched Chi-Chi comfort Icarus and when the little dragon licked her face in gratitude, she didn't scream about monster drool, but instead laughed and petted him on the head. That was how Gohan truly remembered her, as a kind and caring woman.  
  
*****  
"Gohan!" Videl almost went after her husband but decided not to when she felt his perturbed ki stop outside the house. Videl let down her outstretched hand and sighed. She figured Gohan just needed some time to be alone.   
  
With a last look at Chi-Chi, Videl walked out the room. She wandered aimlessly past the kitchen but stopped in the living room at the site of her daughter and her brother-in-law curled up on the couch together sleeping. Videl's mouth twitched into an almost smile at the adorable site before her. Only one thing ruined the image: Goten was drooling. "I'd better wipe that off before he gets it on my daughter."   
  
Videl sighed after she cleaned Goten's chin off and sat down in the sofa seater next to them. Videl stared at the pair, studying intently the young, soft face of Pan and the always angelic face of Goten. "I guess I'm the mother of this family now..." she thought. "Oh Gohan, they understand that they need each other for comfort. Why do you have to be alone?" As if answering her question the door to the front suddenly swung open, and the outline of her husband shown in the frame.   
  
"Videl...?"   
  
"Gohan!" Videl swiftly crossed the floor and Gohan found himself wrapped in a comforting embrace. Still entangled, the couple moved outside the house and closed the door behind them.   
  
"My kaasan, she's really gone, isn't she?" Gohan sounded desolate. Videl cupped his cheek with her hand.   
  
"No, not gone."   
  
"What?" Gohan asked in confusion.   
  
"She's not gone. You'll never lose her, Gohan. She's in our memories, our hearts. When you look into our daughter's eyes, who do you see? Who do you see, Gohan?"   
  
"K-kaasan?" Gohan answered, childlike.   
  
"That's right, and when we leave this Earth we'll be with her again, and Goku."  
  
"Tousan..."   
  
"That's right! Okaasan is with your father right now, in Heaven, and I bet they're very happy. So be happy for them, Gohan. Let it all go. It's alright to cry." Gohan started to choke on unshed tears. Videl embraced him again. "It's alright." she said while stroking his hair. "It's alright." Gohan made a choked noise. A hot tear squeezed out of his eye, then a few more until tears continued to pour down his face, while from his throat came a strangled keening noise.   
  
"Kaasaaaaan." Videl started rocking him back and forth in his arms. "Kaasaaaaaaan. Kaaasaaaaaaaaaaan." One more strangled sob, and then-  
  
"KaaaSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"   
  
And the moisture that fell to the Earth, the moisture that was absorbed by Videl's shirt, came pouring out endlessly from dark, pain-filled eyes. Videl leaned down and kissed his cheek. She tasted moisture. Something salty.   
  
They were Gohan's tears.  
  
Owari 


End file.
